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Cell Tower Battle Ensues At Elementary In Valrico

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

dlwhite@tampatrib.com

Published: March 4, 2009

VALRICO - Parents opposed to a cell phone tower at Cimino Elementary School are urging likeminded parents to attend a March 16 Hillsborough County zoning hearing in a last-ditch effort to stop the tower from being erected.

At that meeting, the Hillsborough County School District will request a utility easement be vacated on the Cimino property, paving the way for the construction of the tower.

Vacating such an easement is normally a routine request, but Cimino parent and cell tower opponent Louise Bravo hopes the easement issue could give opponents one more opportunity to block the tower.

Bravo believes a groundswell of protest is the only way to stop Collier Enterprises II from building the proposed 100-foot tower at the school, located at 4329 Culbreath Road. Principal Deborah Talley issued a decision Feb. 10 to recommend putting up the cell tower.

Bravo urged parents to get involved.

"We need more help," she said. "If we don't act now, the tower will go up in two months."

Although the tower is initially expected to be 100 feet tall, it will grow as carriers are added on, Bravo said.

She and other opponents worry that radio waves emitted by cell phone towers could pose a health hazard.

"I don't know if we can do anything," she said. "But I want to do whatever possible to stop it. Right now, Collier is targeting every school in the area for a cell phone tower. It's like the Wild West out there. Nobody's monitoring where these towers are going."

At a January meeting attended by about 20 Cimino parents, Talley said she would reject the cell phone tower plan if anyone could show her substantive evidence that they pose a health risk.

Cimino PTA president Pearl Chiarenza said all the studies she has reviewed have been inconclusive, and she is in favor of constructing the tower.

Chiarenza said she believes most parents of the 800 or so children at the school want the revenue the cell tower would generate. The tower would produce $9,000 a year with one carrier, $18,000 with two carriers and $27,000 with three. The school would get 80 percent of those funds.

"I'm really frustrated over the opponents' bullying and scare tactics about cancer concerns," Chiarenza said, noting that the bulk of the pressure is coming from an organized group of parents called Families Against Cell Towers. The group successfully opposed a cell tower at Coleman Elementary School in South Tampa.

"They are trying to deny schools an opportunity to earn money during a tough economy. We have parents who are in foreclosure and can't put food on the table. How can we expect them to donate to a PTA fundraiser?" Chiarenza said.

She said the Cimino PTA funds recess at the school, as well as mini-grants for teachers and art programs. The PTA also is paying for construction of a living habitat so children can learn about butterflies, other insects and plant life.

At the meeting in January, parents asked Stacy Frank, president of Collier Enterprises II, to read radio frequency emissions at its newest tower at Miles Elementary School in Tampa. The findings showed the tower gave off less than 1 percent of allowable emissions under Federal Communications Commission guidelines.

"There was virtually no difference in the reading before and after the cell tower was turned on," Frank said. "We're providing a public service by giving these schools financial help during tough times. And the opponents have not shown any evidence that will sustain a credible scientific review that cell towers pose a health hazard. All the evidence they've presented has to do with the use of cell phones."

"What the opponents fail to understand," Chiarenza said, "is that a cell tower can be placed on the property next to the school 300 feet away, and that private property owner would reap the financial benefits, not the school."

Bravo, however, said the county school board is putting financial interests over the welfare of children.

Frank said Collier's engineer will file the paperwork for permits this week, and the cell tower could be constructed within two or three months.

In the meantime, with all the publicity surrounding cell phone towers, Frank said she has had more than 60 requests to place cell towers on properties. Among them, she said, are requests from public school principals.

"I'm not going to say which ones because I don't want to cause them any trouble," she said.

Frank also recently won county approval to place a cell tower at Rotary's Camp Florida, a campground off Lakewood Drive in Brandon owned by Rotary clubs in the district. The campgrounds are geared for children who are critically ill or disabled.

So far, Collier Enterprises II has placed towers at six Hillsborough schools. The company has identified 34 schools in the Brandon area that are potential tower sites.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.

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